About Hanomag
Hanomag (Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG) was a German producer of steam locomotives, tractors, trucks and military vehicles. Hanomag first achieved international fame by delivering a large number of steam locomotives to Romania and Bulgaria before WW I.
The company dates back to 1835 when Georg Egestorff founded a company called Eisen-Giesserei und Maschinenfabrik Hannover to build small steam engines. They soon started making farm machinery and in 1846 built their first railway locomotive for the Hannover State Railways. By 1870 they had made 500 locomotives and in 1871 changed their name to Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG. Road vehicles followed when in 1905 they received a contract for steam waggons for the German army.
Petrol engined vehicles followed in 1912 with a line of farm tractors.
By the 1920s, the market for steam road vehicles was in terminal decline and Hanomag looked to cars as the future, particularly economy models. In 1925, they launched the Hanomag 2/10, a 370 kg open two seater with a rear-mounted 500cc single-cylinder water cooled engine. Named Zweisitzer Limousine (two-seat limousine) by the company, its rounded front and rear gained it the nickname Kommissbrot (for its resemblance to a loaf of Army bread). Although made in large numbers, 15,775 in total, it did not make much money for the company and in the late 1920s the railway locomotive division was sold to Henschel & Son of Kassel.
